[FREE IRAN Project] In The Spirit Of Cyrus The GreatViews expressed here are not necessarily the views & opinions of ActivistChat.com. Comments are unmoderated. Abusive remarks may be deleted. ActivistChat.com retains the rights to all content/IP info in in this forum and may re-post content elsewhere.

Akbar Ganji the celebrated symbol of Iranian resistance has just won another round against Sultan Ali Khamenei, the absolute ruler of this captive nation. The battle of David and Goliath of our time is being replayed everyday in the Islamic Republic of Iran between Ganji and Khamenei. One of the most crucial battles of human rights using the most non-violent methods of civil disobedience is being waged by a middle-aged frail journalist/human rights activist against one of the most cruel and criminal surviving dictatorships.

In this ‘duel’ of life and death, Sultan Khamenei has monopolized control over every aspect of power and authority in the country. He appoints the judges, the military and police commanders, and the religious surrogates, indirectly screens the members of parliament and now has managed to install one of his hatchet men as President of the country. In addition to controlling all levers of state power, he also has ultimate authority over the national economy including the oil sector with close to $50 billion annual revenue. This man with such unprecedented monopoly of power is accountable to no one and can keep his job for life.

Facing him with unparalleled bravery and courage is Akbar Ganji. He is alone. He has no armies, no political party, no money, no organization but plenty of moral courage and political convictions. He, not unlike Mahatma Gandhi, is willing to undertake the highest risk: his life. Until yesterday, he was on a life-threatening hunger strike. After mounting pressures of protests from every decent person and organization, the regime in Tehran blinked first and accepted his demand to be transferred to a prison hospital for treatment of his chronic asthma, which has caught while in custody.

Shirine Ebadi, the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate who is Ganji’s attorney had to travel to London last week in order to hold a news conference and plead Ganji’s case before the court of world public opinion. Her actions and similar pleas have caused a worldwide chorus of support for Ganji. President Bush, the European Parliament, the US State Department and many US Senators and Congressmen are among those who have called for Ganji’s release from prison. Ganji, a columnist and investigative reporter was arrested more than five years ago and sentenced to six years in prison for taking critical stands against the regime. Through his investigative reporting, he had raised serious questions regarding the involvement of Khamenei and other officials of the Islamic republic in the murders of several dissident intellectuals and opposition politicians.

Ganji who one day was among the revolutionary zealots of 1979 upheaval in Iran has evolved into a crusader for human rights and democracy. In his writings, he advocates democracy and liberalism for Iran and the region. He seems to have both the courage and the vision of becoming a national leader. Already one prominent New York editor has referred to him as “Iranian Havel.” His survival and success is dependent on continued international public opinion support.

Why would you want to post a letter to the U.N.? This would be sort of like asking a criminal to design the jail. The U.N. is an impotent, useless and irrelivant organization that usually does more harm than good. DO NOT look the the United Nations and especially Koffi Annan for any help or solutions on any matters. You may as well go take a leak into a stiff wind.
[/quote]_________________Liberalism is NOT a political philosophy.
It IS a MENTAL DISORDER! (Michael Savage)
Those who forget their history are condemned to repeat it.

Why would you want to post a letter to the U.N.? This would be sort of like asking a criminal to design the jail. The U.N. is an impotent, useless and irrelivant organization that usually does more harm than good. DO NOT look the the United Nations and especially Koffi Annan for any help or solutions on any matters. You may as well go take a leak into a stiff wind.

Dear eski,
This is an objection letter to UN and you should remember that there are still millions around the world who does not know what you know about UN. Increasing the political awareness of millions around the world is the key to success and this is one of the way.

I see your point Cyrus. However, even a letter of rebuttle is mute when dealing with the U.N. unless it is designed to indicate just how corrupt and worthless this organization is. I tell whomever will listen just what a terrible outfit the U.N. is whenever the subject comes up. ( and sometimes just for the heck of it ) If Iran or anyplace else for that matter want their problems solved, start at the grass roots level from within and lobby for outside help from the U.S. and other countries that would likely help Iranians gain their objectives. The E.U. 3 are just about the same as the U.N. when it comes to looking out for Iranians. And the U.S has made some grave mistakes itself I am sad to say. But if Iranians want change, massive demonstrations and unrest followed by armed uprising with a powerfull backer will do the trick in the long run. A lot of people will get hurt in this process but sacrifice is sometimes required to gain objectives. Sadly this has been forgotten by too many people who think Ghandi is the example to follow. The mullahs would have eaten Ghandi for dinner. When you get right down to it though...... if the mullahs keep trying to play with nukes things are going to get nasty in a hurry no matter what the people of Iran want to do. It's hard to say which way it would go then._________________Liberalism is NOT a political philosophy.
It IS a MENTAL DISORDER! (Michael Savage)
Those who forget their history are condemned to repeat it.

That is why I believe Member States should recognize that, whenever a particular State is unable or unwilling to protect its citizens against extreme violence, there is a collective responsibility of all States to do so -– a responsibility which must be assumed by this Council.

Debate tends to focus on the extreme cases where only forceful intervention can halt the bloodshed. Yet the earlier we tackle the crisis by other means, the better our chance of preventing it from reaching that point.

-Koffe Annan

Eski,

This excerpt from a prior post on this thread should give you pause for thought, as it is indeed a process of UN reform.

Now Cyrus was simply telling you that there's a heck of a lot of folks that would disagree with your cynical remarks.
Sure, the UN needs to get it's act together...but don't try and discorage people from excercising their rights to petition the UN.

The Committee On The Present Danger's Letter to Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei

WASHINGTON -- A new letter from Iranian dissident journalist Akbar Ganji, authenticated yesterday by his wife, predicts that if he dies, his death will "water the harvest of freedom."

Also, a former Czech president, Vaclav Havel, has joined President Bush; a former Soviet dissident, Natan Sharansky, and European Union leaders in calling for Mr. Ganji's unconditional release from prison by the Islamic Republic. This newspaper has called Mr. Ganji, who has become a symbol of the democratic opposition in his country, the Iranian Havel. He has been on a hunger strike since June 11 in protest of his detention for urging a boycott of last month's presidential election in Iran.

In a letter addressed to a dissident cleric, Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri, once heir apparent to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Mr. Ganji wrote, "If Ganji is killed, his death is not the death of freedom, democracy, and human rights. Ganji's death may act as spring in a desert and water the harvest of freedom," according to a translation by the BBC's Persian service.

In the letter, Mr. Ganji dares the ruling mullahs to let him die, saying that his passing would spark outrage throughout the country. The political prisoner urges his countrymen to oppose the regime. As in his prior communications from prison, the latest letter says that if he dies from his hunger strike, his blood will be on the hands of the supreme leader, whom he says "must go."

This letter and one from Mr. Ganji's wife, Massoumeh Shafieh, suggest that earlier reports that the journalist was being kept alive through intravenous injection at Tehran's Milad Hospital, where he was rushed from Evin Prison last Sunday, were wrong. In an open letter posted on Iranian opposition Web sites over the weekend, Ms. Shafieh said her husband has continued to lose weight and his condition has worsened since his arrival at Milad.

Mr. Ganji's latest letter to Mr. Montazeri is likely to resonate with Iranians who regard the octogenarian cleric as a leading force for democracy in the country. Like Mr. Ganji, Mr. Montazeri was an early supporter of the 1979 Islamic revolution, but the cleric became disenchanted by 1987 and began publicly speaking out against the regime's human rights abuses and purges of its former political allies. Mr. Montazeri was placed under house arrest in Qom in 1997 for questioning the divine authority of supreme leader.

Mr. Ganji's letter is a signal that the reformist movement of the outgoing president, Mohammed Khatemi, has collapsed. Mr. Ganji, who was long associated with the political movement, asks, "Does Mr. Khatemi not know how Mr. Khamenei used him to hold the illegitimate elections for the seventh Majlis [Iranian parliament] and the presidency in order to make the state homogeneous, and forced him to describe both these elections as sound and democratic?"

Mr. Ganji today will be in his 44th day of a hunger strike he has vowed not to break until he is released unconditionally from prison. He began his latest act of civil disobedience when he was rearrested on June 11, after giving an interview to Rooz Online calling for a boycott of last month's presidential elections.

Mr. Ganji's case has attracted international attention in recent weeks. On July 21, a former Czech president, Vaclav Havel, joined world leaders and dozens of intellectuals in calling on the Islamic Republic to release Mr. Ganji unconditionally from prison. In a letter to Mr. Khamenei, Mr. Havel, along with a former Spanish prime minister, Jose Maria Aznar, and the two American chairmen of the Committee on the Present Danger, wrote: "We are concerned that Mr. Ganji's imprisonment is due only to the exercise of his right to freedom of expression as guaranteed by Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. As your county has ratified this Covenant, we ask that you reconsider Mr. Ganji's case, which is further mitigated by his ill health, and that you order his unconditional release at this time."

The Committee on the Present Danger last December released a policy paper calling on coercive diplomacy with Iran's supreme leader to allow transparent elections. The paper called for President Bush to offer to reopen the American Embassy in Tehran that was seized in the 1979 hostage crisis in an effort to increase ties with the country's burgeoning pro-democracy movement.

The international campaign to free Mr. Ganji may be having an effect in Tehran. Last week, the outgoing justice minister told Iranian reporters that he was considering granting the journalist a pardon. Mr. Khatemi last week also said he would favor ending Mr. Ganji's sentence now, six months before his time would be served.

His family has cast doubt on the possible deal. Ms. Shafieh told the BBC on Friday that any pardon may require her husband to ask forgiveness from the court, something Mr. Ganji has said he will not do. Mr. Ganji's lawyer, Shirin Ebadi, a Nobel laureate, yesterday told Reuters that she has not been able to visit her client in Milad Hospital. "As Ganji's lawyer, I have not been allowed to visit him in the hospital," she said. "This is unlawful."

Akbar Ganji, Iran's leading investigative journalist and top dissident, lies near death from a self-imposed hunger strike in a Tehran hospital.

The former Revolutionary Guard, who became a symbol of resistance for Iran's reformers, could be transformed into a political martyr and his death could unleash a tumultuous anger unseen in Iran since the revolution that drove the Shah into exile.

Two weeks ago, Mr. Ganji's hunger strike -- which enters its 50th day today -- drew the attention of U. S. President George W. Bush, when he called for the journalist's "immediate and unconditional release."

"Mr. Ganji is sadly only one victim of a wave of repression and human rights violations engaged in by the Iranian regime," a White House statement said. "His calls for freedom deserve to be heard. His valiant efforts should not go in vain."

Since then, Iranian officials have transferred Mr. Ganji from Tehran's notorious Evin prison to Milad Hospital and denied he was on a hunger strike. They insisted he was there for a knee operation.

But yesterday, Mr. Ganji's wife, Massoumeh Shafieh, told an Iranian news agency her husband was extremely weak, unconscious and could die within days. She had been allowed to see him for a few moments and he had been unable to open his eyes.

"The Tehran prosecutor told me last night that Ganji's doctors believe he would not stay alive until the morning," she told reporters. "We should do whatever is possible right now. I told them to re-attach the tube drips with my permission so that he stays alive."

Mr. Ganji had been taking nothing but water and sugar cubes since May 21, when he launched the hunger strike to protest his continued imprisonment. He has lost more than 20 kilograms.

The dissident was first arrested in 1997 for giving a lecture on "the theoretical foundations of Fascism" and spent three months in jail. He was jailed for 10 years in 2001 for attending a conference in Berlin, which government officials claimed was "anti-revolutionary" and "anti-Islamic."

Around the same time, Mr. Ganji infuriated Iran's leaders by publishing newspaper articles and a book charging that officials, including then-president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and senior conservative clerics, were behind the murders of five intellectuals and dissidents.

His revelations created a furor nationally and overseas, and spurred the creation of a reform movement that threatened to loosen the grip of the conservative clerics on government.

When an appeals court reduced Mr. Ganji's sentence to six months in prison, Saeed Mortazavi, the Tehran Public Prosecutor, stepped in and imposed a six-year sentence on other charges, including the unauthorized possession of photocopied foreign newspapers.

But Mr. Ganji refused to bend. He continued to write and his work was smuggled out of prison and has been widely distributed on the Internet.

Three years ago, he published a "Republican Manifesto," which laid out the basic outlines for a democratic, secular Iran.

During his hunger strike, he also wrote a series of open letters addressed "to all free people," in which he condemned Iran's leaders and demanded justice and democracy.

Ganji has been hospitalised and can no longer walk unaided
Former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has appealed to the judiciary to free an imprisoned writer who has refused food for 49 days.
Mr Rafsanjani is the latest in a growing list of people, including US President George Bush, who have called for Akbar Ganji to be released.

His family say his health is deteriorating fast.

Akbar Ganji went to jail for implicating top officials in a series of political assassinations.

Mr Ganji has been drinking only tea and water for the duration of his hunger strike.

Although he is hospitalised, doctors say there is little they can do as he refuses medication.

His family are due to hold a prayer meeting for him in the evening.

Few options

It was during Mr Rafsanjani's presidency that Mr Ganji wrote about the political assassinations.

In a strange twist, Mr Rafsanjani has now said he feels sorry for Mr Ganji and has made some recommendations to the judiciary about how to resolve the case.

Another senior politician who stood in the recent presidential elections, Mehdi Karroubi, is also reported to have asked Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to intervene.

But the spokesman for the judiciary has said the only way Mr Ganji could be freed is if he requested a pardon.

The writer has refused to do this, for fear of renouncing what he wrote.

Meanwhile, one of Mr Ganji's lawyers has complained to the judiciary that his house was searched last week in violation of the constitution, and his family harassed in the process.

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Cyrus, you'll see on "open letter to Ganji" thread, another BBC article stating hiw wife has been denied access, until see stops giving interviews.